So Close
by Mislav
Summary: The best laid plans usually don't turn out exactly as planned. Set eleven years in the future. Not to be taken totally seriously.


**A/N: I don't own any of the Malcolm In The Middle characters and I am ****not making any money from writing this.**

**Please forgive any minor spelling or grammar mistakes, English is not my native language.**

**Since Malcolm In The Middle finished it's air in 2006, this story takes place eleven years in future, in 2017. This isn't a parody or a crackfic, but you shouldn't take this totally seriously.**

May 24th, 2017

Hal and Lois were having a breakfast in the kitchen, alone. Their children were getting ready for school.

"You have to work longer today?", Hal asks, taking a sip of coffee.

"Yes", Lois said, nodding her head. "I work double shift today?"

"How much time do we have before kids start to get ready for school?"

"About twenty minutes."

Lois sighed. Who would have thought that everything would turn out the way it did...

She gave birth to a son, Hal jr., on Valentine's Day 2007 (which still wasn't the worst Valentine's Day that she and Hal had shared). Three years later she gave birth to a boy that they named Tom.

Although younger than Jamie, Hal turned out to be a lot like Reese. Jamie grew very similar to Malcolm with shades of Francis, while Tom was almost identical to Dewey.

And Francis's, Malcolm's, Reese's and Dewey's lives were each a story of it's own.

Francis was doing quite well and by all accounts that was going to continue. Piama gave birth to their son, Francis jr., in 2008, to their daughter, Leslie, in 2010, and to their twin sons, Alan and Michael in 2015. He had a decent job with decent payment and was promoted twice so far. Francis jr. and Alan ended up being much like him: smart, sassy and they didn't take shit from anyone. Leslie was pretty much like Malcolm: intellectually above most of her peers, with particular interest in Physics and Math. Like Malcolm, she was little socially awkward but she got along quite well with her siblings and wasn't bullied in school, although she prefered a company of students whose interests were similar to the ones that she had herself. Leslie was just am ordinary girl, although quite similar to Piama. Lois's relationship with Francis and Piama became much warmer since then but still remained a little bit tense.

Malcolm was doing fine for quite some time but he finally snapped after attending college for three years while working as a janitor in the same time. He simply stopped attending college one day and went to live in a cheap motel. He spent two months getting drunk and sleeping with random women until his family finally tracked him down and tried to convince him to go back to college. Finally Lois gave up on him and told him that she is OK with him living like that and that she always knew that he would end up snapping and do something like that. Unable to accept that his mother is right, he started attending college again the very next day. He was left back that year but eventually graduated Harvard after two years. Since then Hal and Lois knew pretty much nothing about his personal life, other than the fact that he earned Ph.d and got a job as a Math professor on Harvard so it was a rather shocking for both of them to find out that he and Cynthia are getting married on July 1st, 2015. They found out about that via the wedding invitation that they received in March that year. The whole family, even grandma Ida, attended the wedding, and, surprisingly, everything turned out rather beautiful, with a little help of a particular controlled substance that Lois slipped into Ida's drink. Malcolm kind of re bounded with his parents since then, but they didn't have an actual intimate conversation until the Valentine's Day 2017, when he paid them a visit late at night and revealed that Cynthia was pregnant. He started visiting them much more often since then, and they started getting along much better. He grew especially close to Lois, who has been providing him lots of helpful advice. He appreciated that, although he would often jokingly say that she and Lois already thought him what kind of a parent he shouldn't be. Despite that, Hal and Lois were getting along well with gynecologist said that she will probably give birth late in October or early in November that year.

Reese still working as a janitor and had no intention of moving on to something else. He still lived at Craig's place. He and Alison started living together in 2014 and were engaged since 2015 but have no intention of getting married anytime soon. Allison eventually found a job at Lucky Aide, much to the annoyance of Lois.

And Dewey? He just recently graduated college and still haven't found a job, but that was about to change soon. His musical talent was already recognized among many successful people and he was already getting offers from many movie companies and bands.

Jessica moved away from the house after turning nineteen and changed several colleges until she chose biology. She graduated in 2012. Her father still lived in the old house and still didn't change much. He and Jessica didn't seem to stay in contact with each other.

Stevie became a successful computer programmer, now living on Beverly Hills. He had a girlfriend but still wasn't married. He supported his parents financially but they seem to be comfortable with living where they always did and they were often paying him the visits. Although he and Malcolm went down the very different roads in life, they would still pay visits to each other occasionally.

Craig had continued working at the Lucky Aide and had no intention of moving forward with his job. He started dating Polly again in 2015 and she moved in with him two months later. He remained friends with Lois, although things between them had been rather awkward since she caught him and Polly having sex, Polly wearing Lucky Aide's uniform and a wig that disturbingly well resembled Lois's hair.

Ida's house burned down in 2012 and she started living in their basement since then with no intention of finding a place of her own. They hoped that she would leave soon, but that didn't happen. She somehow managed to get over the fact that most of the neighbours were African-American, although she would still yell racial slurs at them sometimes. Malcolm was supporting them financially but with three children to take care off, Ida in the house and themselves, their living standards didn't really go any higher than they were more than a decade ago.

_It isn't that bad_, Lois thought._ Just a few more years and everything will turn out exactly the way we planned eleven years ago. It won't be that hard to get through the remaining few years..._

"I don't have time to do your homework, Hal! Do it yourself!"

Hal was growing impatient."Do it, you nerd, or I will kick your ass!"

Jamie's voice turned dark.

"Oh, really? I'm not afraid of you, dumbass!"

"Aaargh!", Hal screamed in anger, danger evident in his voice. Jamie's body hit the floor and he sobbed.

"Don't beat him!", Tom squealed, only to gasp in pain the moment afterward.

"We were so close...", Lois gasped as Tom's repeated, pain filled "I hate living here!" screams filled the house.

"So close...", Hal whispered, sounds of punches and moans emerging from the boy's room combined with the sound of Ida walking up the stairs toward the kitchen.

**A/N: I actually want Hal and Lois to finally live a peaceful life and I don't find violence to be funny But the ending with Lois being pregnant again was nothing more than a source of dark humour the way I saw it and I simply couldn't resist writing a follow-up.**


End file.
